Increasing reliance on electronic devices demands products with high performance and efficiency. Such devices can be realized through the advent of nanoparticle technology. This book explains the physicochemical properties of nanoparticles according to each step in the chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) process, including dielectric CMP, shallow trend isolation CMP, metal CMP, poly isolation CMP, and noble metal CMP. The authors provide a detailed guide to nanoparticle engineering of novel CMP slurry for next-generation nanoscale devices below the 60nm design rule. This comprehensive text also presents design techniques using polymeric additives to improve CMP performance.

Texts of the Old Testament and the literature of the European Middle Ages feature a number of narratives about objects on which something is written. In this volume, scholars from the fields of Old Testament studies, Jewish studies, and medieval literary studies examine approaches for analyzing such stories and their narrating and narrated objects.

This volume reconsiders literacy and communication in pre-modern societies, focusing especially on how material form affects the way textual artefacts are understood and interpreted. By bringing together scholars from diverse disciplines such as archaeology, medieval studies, and Islamic studies, this volume provides the specialist and non-specialist with insights on how humans express themselves through writing and material culture.

The present volume comprises 6 highly original studies on material text cultures in different nontypographic societies stretching from the 3rd millennium cuneiform textual record of Ancient Mesopotamia to 20th century Qur’anic boards of northern and central African provenience. The volume provides a multidisciplinary approach to material text cultures complementary to the interdisciplinary, strongly theory-grounded research scheme of the CRC 933.

Writing as Material Practice grapples with the issue of writing as a form of material culture in its ancient and more recent manifestations, and in the contexts of production and consumption. Fifteen case studies explore the artefactual nature of writing — the ways in which materials, techniques, colour, scale, orientation and visibility inform the creation of inscribed objects and spaces, as well as structure subsequent engagement, perception and meaning making. Covering a temporal span of some 5000 years, from c.3200 BCE to the present day, and ranging in spatial context from the Americas to the Near East, the chapters in this volume bring a variety of perspectives which contribute to both specific and broader questions of writing materialities. The authors also aim to place past graphical systems in their social contexts so they can be understood in relation to the people who created and attributed meaning to writing and associated symbolic modes through a diverse array of individual and wider social practices. (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/bai)

This volume addresses the dynamics of materiality over time and space. In cross-cultural, multi-temporal and interdisciplinary studies the authors examine how things gain meaning and status, generate a multitude of emotions, and feed into the propagation of myths, narratives and discourses. The book is divided according to four themes: soft objects, stoic stories, consuming and the collectable, and waste and technologies. The first section discusses the meanings of the lived environment on the individual and national levels. The second section provides specific examples on the role of things in identity construction. The third section focuses on historical and contemporary aspects of consumption and collecting. The phenomena under scrutiny in the fourth section are moral dilemmas associated with and representations of dirt/waste and advancements in science and technology. Presenting diverse case studies of material culture, the volume points to rich interdisciplinary approaches in cultural theory.

This volume encompasses a broad span of issues related to borders as areas of intense activity substantially contributing to the dynamics of culture. The chapters address questions relating to the construction and reconstruction of borders, as well as the experience and representation of physical, spiritual, imagined and symbolic borders. The authors provide perspectives on emerging and dissolving borders in the past and present. Special emphasis is placed on subjective perception by asking how borders are experienced and expressed at the level of the specific community or individual. Several articles tackle dramatic and controversial issues like war, conflict between different ideologies and cultures, and remembering. The authors also explore dialectical relations between culture, social relations and landscape, and the interplay of ideological constructions and material culture. The contributions are arranged into two sections focusing on two wider issues: how borders are drawn in landscape, religion and scientific discourse (Wandering borders), and how representations of cultural borders and border crossings have changed over time (Bordering ruptures: the dynamics of self-description). The authors of this volume come from various scholarly fields and offer innovative tools for expanding the concept of the border across disciplinary frames.

Having elicited much attention in the humanities in recent years, transcultural phenomena will, in all probability, remain a topic of debate in the near future. Being the product of a collaborative act of writing involving nine authors with different specializations, this study is an introduction to the study of phenomena of transcultural entanglement as well as an effort at systematically exploring this field of research from different medievalist perspectives.

Nanofibers, particularly those of a carbonaceous content, have received increased interest in the past two decades due to their outstanding physico-chemical characteristics and their possibility to form and contribute towards a plethora of potentially advantageous materials for consumer, industrial and medical applications. Despite this, and together with the numerous research studies and published articles that have sought to investigate these aspects, the potential impact of CNTs is still not understood. Whether or not nanofibers may be able to provide a sophisticated alternative to conventional materials is still debatable, whilst their effects upon both environmental and human health are highly equivocal. How nanofibers are conceived can determine how they may interact with different environments, such as the human body. Understanding each key step of the synthesis and production of nanofibers to their use within potential applications is therefore essential in gaining an insight into how they may be perceived by any biological system and environment. Thus, obtaining such information will enable all scientific communities to begin to realize the potential advantages posed by nanofibers. The aim of this Special Issue therefore, was to provide a collective overview of nanofibers; ‘from synthesis to application’. The Issue particularly focuses upon carbon-based nanofibers, but also highlights alternative nanofiber types. Emphasis is given holistically, with articles discussing the production routes of nanofibers, their plight during their life-cycle (origin to applied form and effects over time), as well as how nanofibers could either incite conflict, or provide aid to human and environmental health.

Central Asian Sources and Central Asian Research - Selected Proceedings from the International Symposium “Central Asian Sources and Central Asian Research”, October 23rd–26th, 2014 at Göttingen State and University Library

In October 2014 about thirty scholars from Asia and Europe came together for a conference to discuss different kinds of sources for the research on Central Asia. From museum collections and ancient manuscripts to modern newspapers and pulp fiction and the wind horses flying against the blue sky of Mongolia there was a wide range of topics. Modern data processing and data management and the problems of handling five different languages and scripts for a dictionary project were leading us into the modern digital age. The dominating theme of the whole conference was the importance of collections of source material found in libraries and archives, their preservation and expansion for future generations of scholars. Some of the finest presentations were selected for this volume and are now published for a wider audience.